Bitcoin is the World’s first distributed, decentralised Ponzi scheme. No single operator is running it, and everyone has a chance to participate in it, but its value is determined purely by the weight of money coming into it and the willingness of holders to sell it. Like any Ponzi scheme, earlier participants came in at lower cost, and are now receiving much of the billions of dollars (yes, really) that newcomers are putting in.
And unlike Bernie Madoff, you’re probably not going to jail, although some of the self-serving promoters of Bitcoin are skating dangerously close to that if it can be proven that they knew their claims were false and/or were simultaneously selling. Also, unlike thebeneficiaries who cashed out of Madoff’s funds before he crashed, you probably won’t have to pay anything back. That’s the beauty of a decentralised Ponzi scheme.
Eulogy made by David M. Webb
